Handcrafted Hitching Post: wedding summary

Showing posts with label wedding summary. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

A Woodside Wedding: The One Where We Sneak Away Into The Night

The sun had long set.

We’d dined, danced, and enjoyed the evening, but it was over much too quickly.

At least for us it was.

Our guests, however, got to continue drinking and partying for another half hour. See, we didn’t actually do a send off. As much as I love the photos of guests waving flags, ribbon wands, or sparklers as the couple departs their wedding reception, we had a plan, and needed to stick to it.

Because we were having an after party in our hotel suite right after the reception, we needed to get a head start on our guests. So we snuck out of our reception a half hour before the charter bus was coming for everyone. We wanted the party to continue for everyone else, while we had time to change, get ice and set up everything for the after party.

But that didn’t mean we couldn’t still get a few cute departing photos!

Our DOC slyly gathered my bag, shoes and all the stuff we needed to take with us, and inconspicuously ushered us out the back of our venue and around to the front.

We hopped into the limo, the driver opened up the sunroof for us, and we were off!

It was about a half hour ride back to our hotel from our venue, and I must say, it was an amazing part of the night for both of us (I know, I know, I’ve said that about almost every part of our wedding!). We just cuddled in the back of the limo, and quietly recapped our wedding the whole way back to the hotel. Going over all the love we felt that night, how fun it was to see everyone, the highs (so many!) and the lows (so few), we just talked and reminisced, and it was wonderful. The drive felt like it was only a few minutes long, and we soaked up all the emotions from the day and just held on to them. It was a perfect end to our reception.

But that wasn’t the end of our night, we still had an after party to get ready for!

What are your plans for departing your wedding reception?

Miss any wedding week details? Catch up here:

- I packed an emergency bag that saved my dress
- We had a crazy 4 days prepping for house guests and stuffing favors
- Shopping for a ton of wedding flowers to arrange ourselves
- Mr. Cola drinks a 40 and I have a night out on the town for our low-key bach parties
- A day of DIY'ing flower arrangements
- I kicked off our official recaps with my #1 wedding tip
- We began the weekend festivities with a sunset cruise for our wedding party
- We rehearsed our quick and easy ceremony
- I panicked, but we got our rehearsal dinner decorations set up just in time
- Our families met for the first time at our rehearsal dinner under the trees
- What went wrong on our wedding day, and my tips for future brides
- My bridesmaids and I got our hair and makeup done in the hotel suite
- I put on my wedding dress and became a bride
- The guys watched the World Cup, then got ready in 10 minutes
- Traffic delayed our decorations getting to the venue, and I almost ruined our first look
- We got to see each other for the first time on our wedding day at our first look
- We took some time for bride and groom pictures in the park
- I gave you a behind the scenes look at our family, friends and DOC setting up our venue
- Arriving at our venue and getting ready for the ceremony to start
- Everyone walked down the aisle
- Excerpts from our ceremony, and reading the vows we wrote for each other
- I interrupted our officiant, we exchanged rings, and with a kiss we were officially married!
- Wedding party and family portraits, and my thoughts on missing pictures
- Our guests enjoyed cocktail hour while we took a few more photos
- Everyone ate a delicious dinner, and our siblings gave beautiful toasts
- We didn't practice, but we had a very special and wonderful first dance as husband and wife
- I showed you some disposable camera pictures, which were totally worth it to include on our tables!
- I found a target and tossed my bouquet at her
- Mr. Cola finally managed to find my garter under my dress and tossed it
- We fed each other cupcakes, and our guests swarmed our 6ft tall cupcake tower
- We stole some private moments together that our photographers documented
- All our guests had some fun taking pictures in our DIY fauxtobooth
- We enjoyed the rest of the evening with our guests
- I showcased all the pretty details from our wedding, part 1 and part 2

(Unless otherwise noted, all photos in this post were taken by the very talented photographers of Shoot Me Now Photography)

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

A Woodside Wedding: Details, Details, and More Pretty Details, Part 2

In my last post you saw part one of all our wedding day details (and if you missed it, go check out part one first). Now, here is the second half of one of my favorite posts I've put together, with lots of pretty picture overload!

Just like in part one, feel free to click on any of these for a larger view, and I’ve included the links to the original tutorial or inspiration posts at the bottom. Enjoy!

Photo 1: over 6 foot tall cupcake tower, Photo 2: our first dance, Photo 3: carving at our buffet dinner, Photo 4: choose your favor table, Photo 5: short DIY centerpiece and pre-ceremony refreshments, Photo 6: our rings with one of my something old items, Photo 7: DIY bride and groom chair signs, Photo 8: ceremony details, Photo 9: cocktail hour cheese table and bridesmaid purse bouquet, Photo 10: LED luminary escort cards, Photo 11: pictures in the park, Photo 12: signed stones from our memory stone guestbook, Photo 13: DIY programs, Photo 14: DIY laser cut wedding invitations and our first look, Photo 15: groomsmen suits, Photo 16: a stolen moment, Photo 17: our ceremony site waiting for guests to arrive, Photo 18: my bouquet and dress details, Photo 19: tall DIY centerpiece, LED lanterns, and DIY programs, Photo 20: our DIY bridal suite sign, Photo 21: bridesmaid purse bouquets at our ceremony, Photo 22: close up of centerpieces, Photo 23: my DIY shoes and more dress details, Photo 24: our venue at night

Another detail that I didn't have anything to do with, but I thought was really a great touch, was all thanks to our photographers. They provided a digital photo frame, which they placed on our guestbook table about halfway though our cocktail hour, loaded with all the (unedited) photos from earlier in the day. So our guests got a little peek at us getting ready, having our first look, and got to see our ceremony though our photog's eyes.

Our DOC snapped a few photos from the digital photo frame for us (although it's sort of funny that we didn't receive either of these photos in the final set from our photogs!):

(Hee hee, I was so excited about drinking my rum and COLA after our formal pictures, I didn't even know I was being photographed!)

Sadly, there were a few of my DIY details that we didn't receive pro photos of, but I thought I would give them a brief shout out here. Our bathroom baskets:

(personal photo)

Bathroom signs, to cover the ugly ones at the venue:

(personal photos)

And my framed signs for the buffet:

(personal photo)

Of course, there were a few other details I would have liked to see captured, but like I already said, I know it's not possible for photographers to be everywhere at once. And I love the photos we do have!

What are your favorite details from your wedding?

Miss any wedding week details? Catch up here:

- I packed an emergency bag that saved my dress
- We had a crazy 4 days prepping for house guests and stuffing favors
- Shopping for a ton of wedding flowers to arrange ourselves
- Mr. Cola drinks a 40 and I have a night out on the town for our low-key bach parties
- A day of DIY'ing flower arrangements
- I kicked off our official recaps with my #1 wedding tip
- We began the weekend festivities with a sunset cruise for our wedding party
- We rehearsed our quick and easy ceremony
- I panicked, but we got our rehearsal dinner decorations set up just in time
- Our families met for the first time at our rehearsal dinner under the trees
- What went wrong on our wedding day, and my tips for future brides
- My bridesmaids and I got our hair and makeup done in the hotel suite
- I put on my wedding dress and became a bride
- The guys watched the World Cup, then got ready in 10 minutes
- Traffic delayed our decorations getting to the venue, and I almost ruined our first look
- We got to see each other for the first time on our wedding day at our first look
- We took some time for bride and groom pictures in the park
- I gave you a behind the scenes look at our family, friends and DOC setting up our venue
- Arriving at our venue and getting ready for the ceremony to start
- Everyone walked down the aisle
- Excerpts from our ceremony, and reading the vows we wrote for each other
- I interrupted our officiant, we exchanged rings, and with a kiss we were officially married!
- Wedding party and family portraits, and my thoughts on missing pictures
- Our guests enjoyed cocktail hour while we took a few more photos
- Everyone ate a delicious dinner, and our siblings gave beautiful toasts
- We didn't practice, but we had a very special and wonderful first dance as husband and wife
- I showed you some disposable camera pictures, which were totally worth it to include on our tables!
- I found a target and tossed my bouquet at her
- Mr. Cola finally managed to find my garter under my dress and tossed it
- We fed each other cupcakes, and our guests swarmed our 6ft tall cupcake tower
- We stole some private moments together that our photographers documented
- All our guests had some fun taking pictures in our DIY fauxtobooth
- We enjoyed the rest of the evening with our guests
- I showcased all the pretty details from our wedding, part 1

(Unless otherwise noted, all photos in this post were taken by the very talented photographers of Shoot Me Now Photography)

Monday, November 15, 2010

A Woodside Wedding: Details, Details, and More Pretty Details, Part 1

Ahhh, the details. This is the post that I’ve been waiting to write since I first started blogging. All the tiny touches, glimpses of the venue, DIY details galore, and a few shots of the bride and groom thrown in for good measure.

I know some Bees like to do this post early in their recaps, but I decided I wanted to save mine for towards the end, so I could do a pretty picture overload post, without a lot of description. Just a “soak in all the details and hard work from our wedding” kind of post.

I’ve already touched on most of these details, scattered throughout my recaps, although there are some photos I’ve been holding onto for just these posts. So without further ado, here’s the first of my two-part details recaps (sorry, I just couldn't narrow it down enough to fit in one post!). Feel free to click on any of these for a larger view, and I’ve included the links to the original tutorial or inspiration posts at the bottom.